Biotech sector to get NT$15bn injection

The government will invest NT$15 billion (US$468.75 million) by 2010 to develop the infrastructure of the biotechnology industry, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday.

Saying that biotechnology is one of the major technologies being developed locally, the officials added that the government would continue to relax its rules and controls, provide information, encourage technological exchanges, offer human resources support and help biotech firms establish strategic alliances with foreign companies, in addition to channeling funds into the industry.

They said that in 1995, the government finalized a project to promote the development of the biotechnology industry and formed a group responsible for providing guidance to the industry.

In the past few years, the Council of Agriculture and the National Science Council have promoted projects for the establishment of an agri-biotechnology industrial park, a biomedical industrial park in Hsinchu, an orchid biotechnology park in Tainan County and a maritime biotechnology industrial park in Ilan County, they said.

Last year, the government launched a project aimed at developing Taiwan into a "biomedical island" with projects including the National Health Information Infrastructure program, the Taiwan BioBank program and the construction of a clinical experiment system, they said.